Golf-ball tee



P. D. MERRl LL' GOLF BALL TEE Jan. 25 1927- Filed Nov. 19 1924 Patented Jan. 25, 1927.

; UNITED STATES ra'r'rnason 1). MERRILL, or CHICAGO,- IL INors.

GOLF-BALL TEE.

Application filed November 19, 1924. Serial No.750,751.

These improvements relate to devices for supporting a golf ball on the teeing ground. An important object is to provide a golf ball tee having means whereby the player may readily position the device in the ground so as to hold the ball at any one of various relative elevations, to the end that he may 1n :1 sin'iple and easy manner establish a constant elevation of the ball at each of the succussive toeing grounds during the course of play. It is an object also to provide a silnple and cheap form of tee, not easily destructible, and one which, if bent by an improper stroke, maybe readily restored to usable shape by hand. Other objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.

While all golfers would benefit from an adherence to a constant elevation of the ball when making their tee shots, this is particularly true of the ordinary player constituting more than nine-tenths of all golfers, for bad tee shots are to alarge ex tent due to differences in the effective he1ght of the tee adopted by the player from time to time. Such exclamatory expressions as I teed the ball too high, or I teed too low, are very common and universal. According tothe present improvements the players attention is called to the matter of ball elevation each time the tee is used, and by adopting an elevation believed by the player to be the most suitable for him to employ he canalways and easily maintain, it while making the round.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a perspective of the improved tee complete, on an enlarged scale; Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the device in about normal size and proportions inserted in the ground to sustain the ball at several elevations; Fig. 5 is a top view of the device on an enlarged scale; and Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view of the structure with associated markings indicating its gauge characteristics.

sixteenth of an inch. A total length of one-and-one-half to one-and-three-quarters inches will be found ample. Variations in proportions, material used, etc., may be made.

The wire is bent to provide a ring-like forming the section 14. is again bent to form The tee is formed in my practice from a 1 seat portion 10 at the top lying in a plane at right angles to the stem 11 Leading from the ring-like part to the stem is a short section 12 which dips normally downward and leads to a place approximately in line with the middle of the ring '10, at which place the Wire is bent to lie at right angles to the plane of the ring 10 and forming the short section 13. -It is thence bent laterally I the section 15, and is then again bent to provide that the main stem 11 shall be in line with the short section 13 and at right angles with the plane of the ring 10.

The ring 10 may conveniently be from about three-eighths of an inch to half an inch across. One advantage of this ring-like construction is in the fact that balls of various sizes are equally accommodated and held on the tee without rocking motion since the ball is contacted only by the ring, the section 12 dipping away from the plane of the ring sufficiently to clear the ball.

The compound bend or hump in the stem provided bythe sections 14 and 15 constitutes a gauge by which the player may read. ily give the ball eachtime a given predetermined elevation. No player would probably desire. to tee higher than as shown in Fig. 4, nor lower than asshown in Fig. 2. In practice the player simply inserts the stem 11 into the ground until either the bend. 16, Fig. 4, the bend 17, Fig. 3, or the bend 18, Fig. 2, is even withthe surface of the ground. In my practice the distances marked A, B, and C, Fig. 6, are respectively three-sixteenths of an inch.

Another feature of advantage of the bends formed in the stem is that they offer resistance to the downward movement of the tee andcooperate in sustaining the ball at a desired elevation when the tee is insert ed in soft ground." It is advantageous to v have the stem '11 and the part .13 directed substantially toward the middle of the open ring-like seat 10 since the fingers of-the player are therebyalways free to be positioned under the ring without interference when inserting or removing the tee. After I making a shot. the tee is withdrawn by the player from anyone of various directions, according to the position he may happen to be in, and from whatever direction he reaches for the tee his finger tips are enabled to pass beneath the ring for lifting it. The no centralization of the stem with respect to the ring also has the effect of positioning the ball at the particular place selected by the player, and not oil a little to one side or the other of such place. It also avoids a tendency of the weight of the ball to swing the tee around should the tee not be positioned exactly vertically, or due to wind pressure, in instances where a bent portion of the tee is not forced into the ground.

A misdirected blow is, of course, likely to bond the tee, but when it is made of ordinary iron wire it will stand reforming by the fingers a considerable number of times, and the device has an unusually long life in service.

lVhile I have thus illustrated and described a highly advantageous form of the improvement, I contemplate as being included in the invention such changes, modifications and departures from the specific appended claim.

I claim:

A golf ball tee comprising a single piece of wire formed with a ring-like seat for the ball at one end and having a single-wire stem adapted to be inserted vertically into the ground and extending substantially at right angles to the plane of the seat, the stem being in such relation to the seat that when the stem is normally inserted in the ground the seat will be directly above the stem, the normally upper end portion of the stem being directly below the seat and having a laterally extending compound bend therein providing gauge means for estab lishing a predetermined elevation of the seat portion from the surface of the. ground when the device is normally in use.

PATTERSON D. MERRILL. 

